The present invention is related to apparatus for cleaning elongated parallel grooves of "bee boards" that are utilized as nesting for leaf-cutter bees.
Certain bees, for example, Megochile rotundata have been used to facilitate pollenation of alfalfa blossoms for the production of alfalfa seed. These bees are known to confine their pollen seeking activities to a small area surrounding their nests, where the eggs are laid and hatched. The Megochile Rotundata or leaf-cutter bee has a natural affinity for alfalfa blossoms and for nesting within closed end tunnels formed within wood. In order to provide nests wherein the bees may deposit their eggs in sufficient quantities to be effective, it is desirable to have a nesting unit of a portable nature with capacity for holding several thousand eggs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,894 granted to Theodore C. Barber on Feb. 10, 1976 discloses a successful form of artificial nest for hatching bees, particularly the leaf-cutter bee. The nest is comprised of a plurality of thin wooden boards that each have parallel grooves formed along one surface thereof. The grooves extend from one edge of the board to another. The "bee boards" are held together in a stack with a flat surface of one board engaging a grooved surface of an adjacent board to form tunnels through the assembled nest. A seal member is removably attached to one side of the nest to close off the groove openings on that side. Female leaf-cutter bees select the bores for laying eggs in leaf cuttings that are carried into the tunnels. Each egg is surrounded by leaf cuttings and is separated from adjacent eggs in the same tunnel by small plugs of leaf material. The leaves and end plugs form individual cells that are aligned axially within the tunnel, several being situated end to end to fill the tunnel. The filled tunnels are then closed at their open ends by relatively thick plugs, also formed of leaf cuttings.
For proper propogation of the leaf-cutting bees, it is often necessary to remove the individual cells from the bee boards. This has been done by disassembling the nests into the individual board components and by scraping the cells out of the grooves.
A 1973 publication titled "Alfalfa Leaf-Cutter Bees for Pollenating Alfalfa in Western Canada," Publication No. 1495 of "Agriculture Canada" discusses various methods and equipment for handling leaf-cutter bees. In particular, a cell remover apparatus is disclosed for manually removing bee cells from the grooved bee boards. The individual boards are pushed in a path parallel to the grooves formed therein past dowels that are of complementary cross-sectional configuration to the grooves. The dowels are pointed at one end to pry the cells away from the boards as they are pushed by. The cells fall down a trough and into a receiving tray. It states that 15,000 to 20,000 cells can be stripped from successive bee boards in less than half an hour. Large producers, however, require apparatus capable of handling millions of cells. Motorized cell removing apparatus therefore become desirable.
Such a motorized apparatus is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,509 granted to Theodore C. Barber on June 29, 1976. The apparatus automatically breaks up the individual boards from a nest, passes the boards past rows of teeth to remove the larvae and collects the larvae and cleaned boards.
The bee boards, once the cells have been removed, should be cleaned thoroughly before they are reused. This is done to prevent contamination of the next generation of bees and to thoroughly clean the bee boards for proper assembly. This has been accomplished in the past both chemically and mechanically. Chemical applications of common household bleach and water have been utilized to somewhat sterilize the boards. Conventional steam cleaners have been utilized to both decontaminate and clean the boards. Also, wire brushes are frequently used to scrape the leaf cutting residue that is typically left in some of the grooves after cell removal. This process can take substantially longer than the cell removing process, and care must be taken not to damage the boards.
The present invention was conceived to facilitate cleaning of the bee board grooves of residual leaf cuttings and debris left in the grooves after the removal of cells therefrom that will operate at a rate commensurate with that of a motorized cell removal machine.